single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Cristina Berisso -
Number of replies: 14

Dear all,

Every time the end of the semester arrives and I have to start getting new courses ready for the next semester I have to go through the re-setting of start date and close dates for the many quizzes that the students have to take. This process involves the openning of each quiz at a time, resetting the times and saving. When the number of quizzes does not exceed let's say 10, it is not a biggy, but in the case of courses with heavy assessment part (like most of Math courses are) the process can take up to several hours, and the chances of getting them right in the first go are ZERO.

It is during these stressing times of the semester when I would love to have a one page that displays all quizzes in the course with start/close date editting capabilities. An ideal place will be the "quizzes" page itself, which currently displays the closing time of each quiz. Is it possible to include on such page a "turn editting on" button and have the date settings appear for each quiz, so all quizzes's dates can be modified within a page? Does this date setting involve tasks impossible to handle from a one page because of multiple file access, security issues or something of the sort? Could it be done?

It may be that some other instructors/users would like to have such feature and simplify/expedite the new course settings.

Thank you for your time to read this message and thank you also for any suggestions/comments.

Cristina Berisso

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In reply to Cristina Berisso

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Peter Seaman -
Hi Cristina: It pains me to say that Blackboard does something well, but what you describe is actually something Blackboard CE6 (the old WebCT product) does quite well. I don't know if they use Java to do it, but better programming minds than mine could probably look at it and figure out how they do it. I agree that it's a very useful feature. Thanks. - Peter
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In reply to Cristina Berisso

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Joseph Rézeau -
Core developersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Particularly helpful Moodlersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Plugin developersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Testersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Translatorsನ ಚಿತ್ರ
Created MDL-19129 which you can vote for. I agree that such a feature would be great. However I doubt that Tim will find the time to work on it for 2.0. In the meantime, Cristina, if you (or your admin) have access to the moodle database, you might devise an sql request which would do the trick?
Joseph
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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Tim Hunt -
Core developersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Documentation writersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Particularly helpful Moodlersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Peer reviewersನ ಚಿತ್ರ Plugin developersನ ಚಿತ್ರ
First note that when you use backup and restore, or use course reset, you have the chance to move all dates in the course by a fixed number of days offset.

However, an interface like you suggest would be a good thing. I think you could easily do it as a plugin. I would suggest either an 'Adjust deadlines' block, or a 'View and adjust deadlines' course report.

Either of those would be quite an easy programming exercise. You just need to pull the data out of the database and display it; and then provide a form for updating it and then code to update the values in the database on save.

Of course, you would need a bit of code specific to each module because not every module has deadlines, and they all store dates in the DB in slightly different places. But you could just start with quizzes and add other types of module later as the demand arose.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by ben reynolds -
So, Google Summer of Code project?
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Cristina Berisso -

Hi Tim,

Thank you for the idea of the offset days when restoring. I would try to use that for the coming semester. It will save at least some of the work. My school tends to make life a bit difficult for instructors: not all semesters are equal in length, sometimes they start on a Wednesday and sometimes on a Monday, holidays appear at different week days and also the Spring semester has a Spring break in the middle. But certainly I can study what the best fix offset is that takes care of the largest number of quizzes, and do the rest by hand.

Thanks also for giving the specifics on the interface. Hopefully a brilliant PHP code writer in the Moodle community would use the hints to have something working soon and make the day for many of the users like me smile.

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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Cristina Berisso -

Thank you for the MDL! I voted already, and will keep my fingers crossed with the expectation to see the number of votes increasing and the interface come to fruition. Unfortunately I am my own (ignorant) administrator who have no knowledge of database handling or PHP to do such ...blush

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In reply to Cristina Berisso

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Miroslav Fikar -
You may try Course Date Manager available in Modules and Plugins database. It can shift not only quizzes but other activities as well.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Miroslav Fikar

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Cristina Berisso -

Hello Miroslav,

I finally installed the "Course Data Manager" that you suggested, and it does exactly what I needed. It shows all opening and closing times for each quiz on one page and I can set several quizzes to the same date in one go. Thank you soooooo much for your posting and for pointing me to this useful tool, it has saved me tons of hours of tedious work!.

The code performs as described but I have a question regarding the "look" of the datemagr page and link: the "course_datemgr" link within the "blocks" drop-down links and all the labels within the actual "course_datemgr" page appear in between double square brackets like the following: course_datemgr, assignment, etc. Do you know what I could have done wrong or failed to do in the installation for this to happen? Of course it is not a major problem but just aesthetics so it fits with the rest. Thank you in advance.

Cristina 

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In reply to Cristina Berisso

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Joe Ippolito -

I'm having the same problem with the    brackets surrounding all text using this block. i.e. assignment adjustment: submit etc...

Does anyone have a solution?

Otherwise, works great. Thanks!

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In reply to Cristina Berisso

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Joe Ippolito -

SOLVED

When installing the block, the docs instruct you to:

Copy the contents of the lang directory to your ../moodle/lang directory:

    cd moodle/blocks/course_datemgr
    cp -R lang/en/ ../../lang/en/

In my case I have several language folders; en, en_us, en_utf8. Just make sure the course_datemgr.php is copied to the correct language directory.

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In reply to Miroslav Fikar

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Ernesto Gaston Pacheco -

Miroslav,

Perhaps I am doing something wrong but the downloadlinks for this module seem to point to a redirect page that takes me to a Moodle site, in which I have to enrol. I have done this but cannot find any links to the download files as all the courses (bar one) are locked.

Help to locate them would be appreciated.
TIA

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In reply to Cristina Berisso

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Frankie Kam -
Plugin developersನ ಚಿತ್ರ

Hi Christina and others

Here's my answer, 2½ years later, LOL!! Time is a funny thing.

You request for such a feature was actually answered 2 years by a certain Czech Republic PHP freelance developer named Petr Kalis. He created such a block 2 years (in 2007!)  before you posted your post on Moodle.org. How do I know,? Well, go here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=82229

And of course, there is also the Course Manager block which you can read about here:
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1208&filter=1
but can only download from here:
https://github.com/nadavkav/RTL-BIDI-Hebrew-Moodle-Plugins/blob/master/blocks/course_datemgr.tar.gz?raw=true

Hope this helps...enjoy!

Frankie Kam
Malaysia

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In reply to Frankie Kam

Re: single page to set start/close dates for all quizzes

by Cristina Berisso -

Hello Frankie,

Thank you for posting the links! I should have done it myself after finding it thanks to many very helpful and patient Moodlers (about two years ago). The code is excellent and I use it continuously in all of my Moodle 1.9 courses.

Thanks again!

Cristina

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